Objectifs Documentary Award

From 18 May to 16 Jun 2024, Objectifs Centre presents 3 works by recipients of the Objectifs Documentary Award 2023.

An Elephant’s Eye
Featuring works by Choulay Mech (Cambodia)
Recipient of the Objectifs Documentary Award 2023, Open Category
Mentor and Curator: Roger Nelson

Chapel Gallery, Objectifs

Opening | 18 May 2024, 12pm – 7pm
Artist Talk with Choulay Mech and Roger Nelson | 18 May 2024, 2.30pm – 3.30pm (Register here)

In this exhibition, Choulay Mech invites us to consider an elephant’s place in the world, and to imagine the world as it is experienced by elephants. The artist proposes a multi-species view of the entangled intersections between nature and history, religion and violence, humans and other animals. Her intuitive and poetic approach layers photography, video, and found objects, and draws on long-term research.

Choulay pays particular attention to the impact on elephants of ongoing environmental destruction in Cambodia, the country’s recent history of war and widespread violence, and the spiritual beliefs combining Buddhism with animism which shape the attitudes of many Cambodians.

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Sunshine 
Featuring works by Lê Nguyên Phương (Vietnam)
Recipient of the Objectifs Documentary Award, Emerging Category
Mentored by Ng Swan Ti

Lower Gallery 2, Objectifs

Opening | 18 May 2024, 12pm – 9pm
Artist Talk with Lê Nguyên Phương and Dan Tran | 18 May 2024, 4pm – 5pm (Register here)

Sunshine, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, is home to a Vietnamese-Australian community that started to grow in the 1970s, when a large number of refugees from the American War in Vietnam were settled in Australia. Today, the suburb contains multiple facsimiles of Vietnam in its community practices and environment – references to and longing for a home country that many first-generation immigrants continue to hold close to their hearts. In documenting the suburb, Phương Nguyên Lê addresses notions of diaspora, national identity and longing.

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Mangaramoti Tano Ni Ompung (To Bless the Mother’s Land)
Featuring works by Kaleb Sitompul (Indonesia)
Recipient of the Objectifs Documentary Award 2023, Emerging Category
Mentored by Ng Swan Ti

Lower Gallery 1, Objectifs

Opening | 18 May 2024, 12pm – 7pm
Artist Talk with Kaleb Sitompul and Ng Swan Ti | 18 May 2024, 1pm – 2pm (Register here)

The Opung Raja Nasomalomarhohos Pasaribu (Natinggir Forest Indigenous Community) is a Batak tribe that has resided in the highlands of Toba in North Sumatra, Indonesia, for over 300 years. They are one of the area’s oldest indigenous residents. The tribe has a deep spiritual and emotional connection to the land from years of living in and managing the forest, with the frankincense tree occupying a special place in their folklore and beliefs. Aside for using the land for farming and gathering, they harvest the fragrant resin of frankincense trees, a practice that has been in place for generations.

The tribe’s ancestral lands have slowly been encroached upon by eucalyptus plantations established by a major company that pulps eucalyptus trees for industrial purposes. These plantations have turned a vibrant ecosystem into a monoculture; the frankincense trees that used to grow plentifully are disappearing and the land has been left bereft, threatening the tribe’s traditional livelihoods and practices.

About the Objectifs Documentary Award
The Objectifs Documentary Award champions Objectifs’ mission to broaden perspectives through image making, by supporting original voices in visual storytelling in Singapore and the wider region. The Award enables photographers to work on new or existing projects, encouraging them to tell stories about their native communities. It welcomes different creative approaches to non-fiction storytelling, from conventional documentary photography to visual experiments. Projects may be presented in still images or use multimedia.

Successful recipients will be given professional and financial support to work on their projects over a 6 month-long period. The final works are exhibited at Objectifs each year.

Open Call for Objectifs Documentary Award here.